So Wrong, So Right
by MizJoely
Summary: ST: Into Darkness AU. Khan gets his crew on board the ship he's rechristened the 'Botany Bay' before Spock removes them from the torpedo casings, then offers the defeated Enterprise crew a deal. Dr. Molly Hooper comes aboard the hijacked dreadnought to help revive his crew, not knowing the darkly intriguing superhuman has other plans for her. Khanolly omegaverse.
1. Prologue: Into Darkness

_A/N: My second Khanolly story, although I posted bits and pieces of it on tumblr (mostly inspired by lovely BC as Khan photosets). Reworked into an omegaverse story. Definitely TBC and definitely will be rated M._

* * *

"You've lost, Commander. Send Dr. Hooper over to revive my crew and in return I'll make sure the hostages make it back to the Enterprise intact." Khan smirked. "Well. Relatively intact. Your captain is a bit the worse for wear, I'm afraid, and Dr. Marcus and Engineer Scott could use some medical attention as well."

"And what of the Admiral and his men?" Spock asked, his tone even and expression calm for a man who had just surrendered.

Khan allowed a cold smile to cross his lips. "Dead," he said succinctly. Even though Kirk had insisted on stunning their opponents, Khan hadn't hesitated to flood the ship (with the exception of the bridge, naturally) with a poison of his own creation, fast acting and fatal, dispersed through the air vents and substituted for the usual anti-intruder anesthetic gas by him during the ship's construction.

He and the Vulcan traded stares for a fraught moment before Spock finally conceded victory to their foe. "Very well. Dr. Hooper will be ready to attend to your crew in…"

"Now just a damn minute!" A new voice interrupted the negotiations, and Khan watched in cool amusement as Dr. McCoy moved up to stand by Spock's side, glaring openly at the Augment. "I'm not lettin' any of my people beam over to that death trap you call a starship, damn you! I'll come myself, I know the procedures to follow…"

"No." Khan's voice was hard, his expression even colder and more forbidding. "Dr. Hooper or no one."

"Dr. McCoy, stand down," Spock ordered, recognizing the implacable tones for what they were: the sound of a man on the verge of retracting a previous offer. "Dr. Hooper will be in no danger as long as she does as Khan requires her to do. Is that not true?" he asked, returning his challenging gaze to the face on the viewscreen.

Khan nodded regally. "Of course. I guarantee Dr. Hooper's safety while she is on board the _Botany Bay_." He'd renamed the starship after the long-lost sleeper ship that had housed him and his crew for three centuries of sleep, a deliberately ironic choice. "And once she has completed the task of awakening my crew, as I've already stated, all the hostages will be returned to you and you will be allowed to limp back to Federation space as best you can." That his own destination would be elsewhere went without saying but was understood by all.

McCoy looked as if he was about to voice more objections, but Spock silenced him with a look. "Very well, Khan. Dr. Hooper will beam over in five minutes."

Khan settled back in the captain's chair as the viewscreen went dark, steepling his hands beneath his chin and smiling, a private smile, not the darkly triumphant one he'd worn while confronting his defeated foes.

He'd wanted his crew, his family, back, and now he had them. He'd wanted his revenge against Admiral Marcus, and had exacted that revenge, crushing the man's skull in front of his daughter's horrified eyes. The only thing missing now was the woman he'd selected for his mate.

And shortly, he would have her, too.


	2. First Contact

_A/N: KendraPendragon wondered if there would be any sort of flashback...and the answer is yes and here it is! :) Enjoy!_

* * *

**Previously (**_**Enterprise**_** Sickbay)**

She wasn't the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on, by far. Nor the most graceful; Khan's eyes tracked the young doctor's slender, petite form as she stumbled over a piece of medical equipment and nearly sprawled on her face. One of the nurses, a young man with wiry red hair and a host of freckles covering nearly every inch of exposed skin, laughingly steadied her, and she grinned her thanks at him, the two of them unaware they were being observed.

No, not the most beautiful or the most graceful, but her scent…ah, her scent. His nostrils twitched as the overpowering scent of Omega filled them. How had it happened, how could there be an Omega female existing in this sterile Federation he'd been awakened to? Earth had long since eliminated any of the genetic enhancements that had been surreptitiously made their way into the general Human population three hundred years earlier, or so he'd believed. Yet here was living proof that somehow, somewhere, the unintended side-effect of the Augmentation process that he and his loyal crew had undergone at the hands of Doctor Noonian Soong and his associates had somehow survived the frenzied, short-sighted attempts to stamp it out.

It was all he could do to keep himself still, to remain seated on the biobed, knowing that the manacles that had been placed around his wrists could easily be destroyed by him, that the first unbonded Omega female he'd seen or scented in over three centuries was close enough to taste. But now wasn't the time; if things worked out as he planned, he would find a way to take her away with him. The female members of his crew were either lifebonded, like his best friend Joachim and his Omega wife Maria, or Alphas like himself, making for far too volatile a pairing for more than brief, physical couplings. Satisfying enough in the moment, but ultimately leading to an empty, sterile existence.

Dr. Hooper's smile faded as she caught Khan staring at her, her brown eyes widening as she took in the sight of him. He'd assumed she was one of the junior medical officers serving under McCoy, and was both pleased and surprised to hear her referred to as the cynical CMO's second in command. His already heightened interest in her skyrocketed at the revelation, and he bit back a wolfish grin. The Omega female wasn't merely intelligent, but must be truly remarkable to have gained such a valued posting at the young age of – his eyes raked her form from head to toe and back again before once again steadily meeting hers – twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

He continued to hold her gaze while his guards remained vigilant at his side and the rest of the medical staff warily went about their business. He ignored them all, hyper-focused on her and only her, his mind sifting through the various scenarios that might come to pass in the near future, and how he could best fit her into his plans, and ultimately, his future. The thought brought a blaze of satisfaction through his body, although he only allowed himself to show it in a slight quirk of his lips.

As if that small movement had broken some sort of spell, Dr. Hooper – Molly, he heard one of her colleagues call her – gasped and turned away from him, busying herself with a handheld data padd…but not before he saw her cheeks pinkening.

His smile subsided, but his satisfaction continued to rise. If things played out as he expected them to, he would eventually have the opportunity to see if her blushes went only as far as her neck, or extended down her torso and beyond.

**The Present**

Molly Hooper looked around nervously as she materialized on the transporter pad of the massive dreadnought-class starship Khan had commandeered. She knew that the Enterprise was entirely at this man's mercy, and yet she still felt a thrill of excitement at the thought of seeing him again. It troubled her, because normally she wasn't one to fall in lust at first sight, as her Deltan roommate would have put it, but from the moment she first laid eyes on 'John Harrison' she'd felt a pull toward him like no man she'd ever dated.

Part of it was that he just smelled so damned _good_, and she couldn't even explain why. Certainly a man who'd been hiding out in an abandoned city on the Klingon homeworld wasn't going to be splashing on aftershave, yet there was a crisp, woodsy smell about him that practically made her mouth water, and she was at a loss to explain why.

After that unsettling meeting with him in Sickbay, Molly had studied everything she could about Khan Noonien Singh. She discovered some interesting personal information, such as the fact that he was the first successful Augment, and had been named after the two geneticists who'd secretly created his kind during the bad old days of the mid 21st century, when Earth had been wracked by war after war with seemingly no end in sight.

She had plenty of time to study more about him and the Augments after he and Captain Kirk had apparently shot themselves like human missiles at the looming enemy vessel (hard to think of a Starfleet ship as the enemy, but Admiral Marcus appeared to have gone completely off his trolley). Khan and his Augments had disappeared before Zephram Cochrane's historic first Warp flight and the introduction of the Vulcans, a footnote in history written in very confusing and conflicting accounts. Some accused them – and the geneticists who'd created them – of wanting to rule the world; there were even some accounts that claimed they'd been the ones to start the wars in the first place, although Molly easily discounted those, since the timing just wasn't right. She'd heard the saying "history is written by the victors" many times, but this was the first time she'd seen such clear evidence of such bias.

And now she was about to see Khan and his crew up close and personal again, this time helping to unfreeze them from their cryotubes in exchange for the lives of the prisoners Khan held hostage. Technically she supposed she now fit into that category, but she tried not to allow her fears to overcome her. She was a Starfleet officer, a medical doctor, and was posted on the flagship of the fleet not because of some political machinations but because of her skill and dedication.

Those skills and that dedication would be put to the test today. She stepped off the transporter pad and headed for the door, wondering at the fact that no one was there to either greet or escort her. Then she mentally smacked herself; of course no one was there! Captain Kirk and the others were prisoners, the Augments were still frozen, which meant the only person awake and free on this ship at the moment was…

"Khan," she breathed as the transporter room doors opened and he appeared in front of her as if summoned by her thoughts.

He was still clad all in black, his dark hair a bit mussed and the expression on his face stormy at first, but rapidly clearly as a pleased smile flashed across his lips. Molly could have sworn it was sincere, that it reached his otherwise icy blue-green eyes, but it was there and gone so quickly she began to doubt herself. Especially as he said nothing to her, simply reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, tugging to ensure that she followed along.

She didn't bother trying to pull free, telling herself it was because there was no point; he was physically superior in every way and she was just a normal human, but the rapid beating of her heart had as much to do with the (purely physical) attraction she'd felt ever since first laying eyes on him as it did with the (rightly justified) fear she was feeling.

But God, did he smell good, even better now that they were in such close proximity to one another. The crisp woodsy smell was supplemented now by something smoky and dark and exotic and entirely distracting. It was enticing, that smell, made her want to push him up against the nearest bulkhead and run her tongue along his throat.

"Pheromones."

Molly jumped a bit at the sound of his voice. She'd been so lost in her own confused longings that she hadn't realized he'd been studying her as they walked. "Sorry, what?" she asked, glancing up at him sidelong.

"Pheromones," he repeated, eyes straight ahead as he continued to pull her along at break-neck speed. "Your reaction to me…my scent, in particular," he added, eyes darting to meet hers briefly before returning to the corridor ahead of them. "I have the same reaction to you," he added, only deepening her confusion.

She knew what pheromones were, of course, but humans generally couldn't smell them on a conscious level. Yes, Khan was a genetically-altered Augment, but that didn't explain why she, a normal human, was reacting to his pheromones. Unless of course it was simply that he emitted them more strongly, and as someone who'd always had a sensitive nose, she was able to smell them. A simple biological explanation, although why he would admit to having the same reaction to her made no sense. Or did it? Was that scent part of the reason he'd selected her for this mission, rather than the much more experienced Dr. McCoy? Did he find her…attractive?

Molly quashed that thought as quickly as it crossed her mind. Not only was it inappropriate on a professional level – she was here as doctor, after all – but it was all kinds of wrong on a personal level. This man was a terrorist, who was responsible for the deaths of dozens of people back on Earth. And if the historical records could be trusted at all (which she still doubted, since those times had been so chaotic and war-torn), he'd been responsible for thousands if not millions of other deaths three hundred years ago. In no ways a man she should feel any sort of connection to.

And yet…

She did. And nothing that could be explained away by something as simplistic as a physical reaction to pheromones, either. Something she would like to explore if she ever had the chance.

But not today. Today she had a mission. She would revive Khan's seventy-two crewmembers, see that they were in good health, then leave with Captain Kirk, Chief Engineer Scott, and Dr. Marcus, return to the _Enterprise_ and very likely never see Khan or his crew ever again.

She spent the remainder of the journey to the flight deck trying to convince herself that that was exactly what she wanted.


	3. Meet the Family

It was done. Khan's crew had been revived, all were in excellent health and showing no ill effects from their three hundred-plus years of unconsciousness, and their leader was greeting them and promising explanations while Molly hung back and watched, hugging her medical tricorder to her chest. He was particularly effusive when he greeted a slightly older, shorter ash-blonde man; they hugged warmly and exchanged comments Molly was too far away to hear.

"Joachim," a voice spoke from her side. She looked over, nervous about coming to anyone's attention, to see another man with a shock of short, grey hair and a wry smile on his face. "That's Khan's second in command," he added by way of further explanation. "And I'm Gregor, although Khan will most likely call me Graham or Gavin," he added, his grin turning rueful and yet fond at the same time. Matching the tone of his voice. "Stupid game he likes to play, even though we've known each other…well, forever, it feels like."

Molly felt herself relaxing in the man's presence, when she knew she should remain vigilant, on guard, alert for any way of escaping or at least learning something that could prove of value to Captain Kirk when they were returned to their own ship. But then, maybe personal information about Khan's crew had some value; she had no idea if Admiral Marcus had records of who his prisoners had been. "Were you…part of the same program?" she found the courage to ask. It wasn't just Gregor's easy manner that encouraged her, but it was the genuine warmth he exuded, along with a subtle, musky scent that was nearly as appealing as Khan's.

He nodded, not appearing at all worried about sharing information with her in spite of the fact that she was a complete stranger. Maybe her appearance of cooperation – well, more than an appearance – was enough to cause him to trust her? Of course, the fact that he could snap her neck like a twig probably helped. As did the fact that Molly was vastly outnumbered even if some of the Augments were still easing the cramps out of their limbs and finding their mental and physical bearings in the strange new world they'd woken up to. So why not pass the time chatting her up?

That thought brought her up short; he wasn't _flirting_ with her, for God's sake! If anything he was softening her up in the hopes that she might give him some information he and his fellow Augments could use. Maybe Khan himself had asked Gregor to keep her company…no, that theory wouldn't fly. Not when she looked up and saw Khan himself striding toward them, his face like thunder and clearly displeased about something.

Gregor laughed. "Uh oh, looks like someone's about to get all possessive over his Omega," he said, making absolutely no sense to Molly as he eased away from her. As Khan strode up to them, the older man raised his hands in an appeasing gesture. "Don't worry, Khan, I kept my hands to myself. I know better than to get between an Alpha and his Omega." Then he did something odd, tilting his head to one side as if baring his neck to the other man, as if they were wolves or dogs and he was showing submission to a pack leader. His odd choice of words only strengthened that impression, as did Khan's reaction to the movement – he actually bent his head down and laid his teeth on the man's throat.

Molly watched, fascinated, as Khan released the light grip of his teeth – he'd barely bit down hard enough to leave a mark – and glowered at Gregor. "Irena could use some help, her legs are cramping and a brisk massage should do the trick." Gregor nodded and walked away without a backward glance.

Khan of course said nothing about the odd display Molly had just witnessed, simply glowered at her for a moment before reaching out and grabbing her hand the way he had in the transporter room. "It's time to check out the prisoners, Dr. Hooper, and ready them for their return journey. My crew all appear to be in good health, but I've asked them to report to Sickbay for you to give them each a more thorough vetting before we conclude our business with Starfleet and continue the search Admiral Marcus so rudely interrupted."

"Search for what?" Molly found the courage to ask.

"For a new home," Khan replied simply, then they were moving too quickly for Molly to spare the breath for more questions.

**oOo**

She wasn't allowed to tend to her fellow prisoners' injuries in more than a cursory manner; a hypospray of painkillers each for Captain Kirk and Doctor Marcus, a milder dose for Commander Scott, some old-fashioned bandaging, and she was escorted from the brig to Sickbay to tend to the people whose welfare Khan truly cared for. Within a few hours, with the assistance of the man Gregor had identified as Joachim – who was also a doctor and very quick to learn how to use a diagnostic tricorder once Molly showed him – everyone had been given a clean bill of health, including a lovely blonde named Maria who turned out to be both a nurse and Joachim's wife. Molly was touched to see the real love between the two of them, and heartened at the thought that the Augments were still human at heart, in spite of their checkered reputations and the unfortunate deeds of their leader in recent months. Molly had seen the undisguised hatred in Carol Marcus' eyes when she looked at Khan, and Captain Kirk's expression had been guarded but Molly had seen his anger behind the stoic mask he presented.

She'd felt so guilty when Khan escorted her to the brig to treat the prisoners, and had winced at the extent of the damage Kirk had suffered at Khan's hands, but the captain had quietly reassured her that he approved of her doing as Commander Spock had asked her to. That had gone a long way toward easing her guilt about giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and since Khan's long-term goal was apparently to get as far away from Earth and the Federation as possible, she knew she just needed to keep herself together for a little while longer and she would be able to return to her life on the _Enterprise_.

All she wanted, she told herself as she left Sickbay and headed for the transporter room where Captain Kirk and the others were currently being held under guard, was for her life to get back to something resembling normal.

**oOo**

Molly stared in shock as Captain Kirk, Chief Engineer Scott, and Dr. Marcus vanished into streams of electronic particles, beamed back to the _Enterprise_ by Khan. Returned, but without her. She turned to stare at him. "Why aren't I going with them?" She was proud of herself for not stuttering in fear, even as her heart threatened to pound its way out of her chest.

His gaze was unreadable as he responded, "I only promised to return the _hostages_, Dr. Hooper." He stepped forward, close enough that she had to tilt her head up to meet his gaze. She held her breath as he reached out and ghosted his fingers along the side of her face before adding softly, "You, however, were never a hostage."

All she could do was continue to stare at him, this dark, terrifyingly attractive man, and wonder what he had in mind for her.

The two guards who had accompanied their little group to the transporter room had holstered their phasers as soon as Captain Kirk and the others were gone. Once again, Molly knew it was because she wasn't a threat, and once again, she felt a welling tide of helpless bitterness growing at being thus dismissed. Well, of course she wasn't a threat; the only question was, what game was Khan playing, why was he keeping her on board his commandeered starship – and what did he plan to do with her?

The sound of the ship's comm activating caught her attention, and she felt her heart skip as she heard Captain Kirk's voice filling the room. "Khan! You said you'd return us all! Send Dr. Hooper back to the _Enterprise_ now!"

Khan, looking as unruffled and in command as always, strolled over to the transporter controls and spoke directly into the comm. "Sorry, Captain, but Dr. Hooper was never a hostage. Limp home to Starfleet with your broken ship, Kirk, and remember that she is the only reason I've decided to keep my word and not blast you and your crew into smithereens." Then he cut off the communication and turned his attention back to Molly. "Take Dr. Hooper to her quarters," he instructed, keeping his eyes locked with hers. "Then join the rest of us in the main briefing room, two decks down, so I can further explain this remarkable new world into which we've awoken."

"Yes, Khan," one of the men – a burly redhead with Slavic features – responded with a respectful bow of his head. "This way, Dr. Hooper," he said, but Molly backed away from him and shook her head.

"I won't, won't help you anymore," she said, speaking directly to Khan and loathing the stutter in her voice. "I did what I was sent over here to do, and there's no way you can force me to do anything…else." She faltered to a stop, not because Khan seemed angry at her quiet defiance, but because he was…smiling at her? She didn't understand what was so amusing, and retreated into anger to cover her confusion. "I mean it," she said, more forcefully this time. "I won't cooperate with you anymore."

He nodded agreeably. "I'm sure you won't." The he stepped closer to her and lowered his head so that his lips just brushed her ear as he said in a low, purring voice, "At least, not until I manage to persuade you to change your mind. Which we both know I will."

Then he was gone, leaving her completely off balance, alone with the two guards, who quietly but determinedly escorted her to the quarters that had apparently been set up for her without her knowledge. They locked her inside and she sank down on the narrow bunk as reaction finally set in with a vengeance. Her legs were trembling…no, her entire body was trembling, and tears were threatening and her nostrils were filled with the heady scent of Khan and she was at a complete loss as to why, when he'd spoken to her so intimately, all she'd wanted to do was bare her neck to him as Gregor had done, and allow him to sink his teeth into her exposed throat. It made her feel like the heroine in a romantic vampire vid, the kind her Academy roommate had watched obsessively and which Molly had openly scoffed at.

What the hell was wrong with her? She didn't understand any of it, not her reactions, why Khan was keeping her…why was he keeping her? Because he wanted to have sex with her? That much seemed clear, but she had no idea what was so special about her – especially after seeing how stunningly beautiful some of the women she'd helped to revive were. Did he expect her to continue to teach Joachim in modern medical techniques? That seemed a bit far-fetched as well; it had taken 'John Harrison' less than a year to come up to speed enough on modern engineering principles to be able to design the ship she was currently imprisoned on. She assumed the rest of the Augments were just as quick to learn as he was, and even if they weren't, there was no way she would teach any of them anything.

Confused and frightened, she curled up on the narrow bunk and stared blankly at the bulkhead for a long, long time before sleep finally overtook her.


	4. The New Normal

_A/N: Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing as always, and special thanks to allthebellsinvenice for betaing this particular chapter. :)_

* * *

**Two Months Later**

"Dr. Hooper? Time for your suppressant."

Molly stifled a sigh; even after two months spent moving steadily away from Federation and Klingon space into the uncharted vastness of the galaxy, Khan still refused to allow her to administer the hypo containing the suppressant for her estrus – or heat, as he and the other Augments called it – herself. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, or so Maria and Joachim had tried to reassure her; it was that he wished external verification that she had, indeed, been injected with the cocktail of medications that would keep her from turning into a lust-crazed sex maniac. Most of the time he did it himself, but today he and a half-dozen crew members were on the planet they were currently orbiting, examining it as a potential new home for them all.

She turned and offered Maria a tight grin, which she knew the other woman saw through as easily as she saw through most people's falsities. Including Khan; Molly was secretly impressed not only by Maria's ability to tell when Khan was fibbing, but also by the way she was unafraid of calling him out on it the few times he did so.

For example, like the time he'd tried to tell Molly that if she didn't cooperate and act as a full member of his crew, following his commands as the others did, he would keep her locked in her cabin for the remainder of her days. Maria had simply quirked an eyebrow at him – they had been in Sickbay because Molly had begun exhibiting some troubling symptoms she knew now were the first signs of estrus – and he had scowled and folded his arms across his chest. "Fine, then, do as you wish," he'd snapped while Molly had looked back and forth between him and Maria, confused and feverish. "Agree to be part of my crew or not, but just know that you will not be returning to your precious Federation ever again."

That was when she'd learned that they were speeding away into uncharted territory, and why. Finding a new home, the safe haven they'd been pursuing when they left Earth the first time three hundred years earlier, was still their primary goal. An uninhabited world; that part had surprised and secretly pleased Molly, who was slowly learning to think of Khan as something other than a power-mad super-villain from a kid's holo-vid series.

After Khan had left, Maria and Joachim had explained the science behind the heat suppressant she was about to go on – and why her heat had been triggered – even as they busied themselves synthesizing it. "It's because you're surrounded by Alphas instead of baseline Humans," John had said as he took careful readings of her from skin to subcutaneous tissue and everything in between. Particularly her reproductive system. "Your latent Omega genes are being expressed by that change in environment."

"It's a change in your phenotype rather than your genome," Maria had added helpfully. Molly's own knowledge of genetics made their words easy to translate; the music on the page would remain unchanged, with the differences being only in how the song was being played. The suppressant they were synthesizing for her would work on her hormones rather than directly on her genes, easing her unconscious fears that Khan and the others were somehow altering her biology to suit their own needs.

She'd felt the easing of her symptoms – fever, nausea, a vaguely itching sensation, heightened sensitivity to smells and an excessive amount of vaginal discharge – almost immediately. Now, she was used to the once-weekly shots, and had stopped resenting the need for them, even though she still didn't consider herself a part of Khan's crew. Nor did she think of herself as being under his command, but she was resigned to living her life on board the fugitive spacecraft. One of the last Federation subspace information packets they'd intercepted had been a grim announcement of the commencement of hostilities with the Klingon Empire. So Admiral Marcus posthumously had his war, had been Molly's despairing thought. A war that would keep Starfleet far too busy to pursue one errant starship, no matter how valuable its armaments and weaponry might prove to be – and no matter how badly they wanted the terrorist currently commanding said ship to be taken into custody.

She hadn't known what to expect during her first few weeks, even after Khan's threat to keep her locked up had turned out to be a bluff. That it was called by one of his own people had been a surprise, but a pleasant one; although Molly was wary of calling any of these people friends, Joachim, Maria and Gregor certainly came closest – and were definitely among the minority whose opinion of her wasn't neutral-at-best, hostile-at-worst.

Her fears that Khan's would force himself on her had turned out, so far, to be unfounded; he never attempted any familiarities beyond casual conversation and perhaps invading her personal space a bit too closely whenever he found a need to speak to her. He'd never so much as kissed her, let alone forced her to have sex with him; the fact that he'd ordered Joachim and Maria to assist her in synthesizing the heat suppressant was telling as well. Oh, he made no bones about the fact that he wanted her in his bed, but he also made it clear he wasn't about to force her into a sexual relationship with him.

Not, he'd said once with a rather feral gleam in his eyes that still made her shiver whenever she thought about it, until she asked him to.

Because of course dominance play was central to the entire Alpha-Omega dynamic; Molly had learned that not only through studying the Augments and asking the friendlier ones questions, but also because of what she'd learned through her research. Although there were certainly no instances of humans with such atavistic qualities to be found, there were plenty of examples in non-human species, both intelligent and otherwise.

The Pa'aavri were an alien species whom the Federation had contacted and maintained friendly relations with; a segment of their population underwent rut cycles, as did Vulcans, although that was hardly common knowledge. But the females of neither species underwent anything like estrus, so the closest examples were to be found right on Earth. Wolves, for instance. And housecats. The idea of going into heat, of becoming a mewling, desperate bundle of hormones and needs was entirely unappealing. But when she expressed that opinion to Maria, she'd been surprised when the other woman had contradicted her understanding of what a heat entailed.

"Oh, yes, it's rather like being burned up from the inside out; and God the ache in your cunt until you're knotted…but Molly, quite simply, it's the most amazing sensation once you and your Alpha go through a heat together. It's when bonding occurs, when you feel as if you're fulfilling a destiny you never even knew you had or could possibly want." The normally pragmatic Omega had waxed almost lyrical on the subject, and Molly found herself fascinated and not quite as repelled at the concept as she had been before.

It did not mean, however, that she was in any way, shape or form ready to give herself to Khan. Certainly not just to satisfy her curiosity…and that, she reassured herself over and over, was all it was. Simple curiosity. The attraction was entirely one-sided.

She very carefully did not express that belief aloud, at least not in front of Maria, the Human – or rather, Augment – lie detector. Who had placed the empty hypospray back on the tray and entered the time and date into the ongoing log Khan had requested she and Joachim keep.

Once Molly had absorbed everything there was to be learned about the Alpha-Beta-Omega dynamic (Betas seemed to be little different from ordinary humans excepting their enhanced senses of smell and their abilities as Augments, of course), she'd tentatively asked Maria why Khan didn't just let her go into heat. "Then he could, he could just…have me," she'd blushingly said, not wanting to sound full of herself but also aware that Khan had made no secret of his desire for her. Gregor wasn't the only member of the crew to refer to Molly as Khan's Omega, although he was one of the few to do so without sneering contemptuously as he did so. That had thrown her off; Maria wasn't the only Omega in the crew, but it had taken Molly longer than it should have before she realized it wasn't her Omega status they were sneering at, but the fact that she wasn't an Augment.

Since there was nothing she could do about that, and since she'd never been one to fret over whether or not people liked her, she chose to ignore the ones who resented or at best tolerated her presence on the ship, and concentrated on the ones who she might one day allow herself to consider friends. Like Maria, who had carefully explained that, no matter what other crimes he might or might not have committed, Khan was certainly no rapist.

About their shared history, Maria and the others remained tight-lipped, even when Molly promised them that it was only because she wanted to hear their side of things, rather than the biographies and histories that had been written after they'd left Earth the first time. Her only answer was that it was up to Khan to tell her, and with a feeling of intense frustration she understood that that would only happen if she became his bondmate.

Or, she thought bitterly as she watched Maria smiling and chuckling at something Joachim was whispering in her ear, if she became his concubine. Because one of the many things she didn't know about Khan was whether he wanted her in his life – and bed – permanently, or just for the short-term.

The opinions of several of the females was quite clear; Irena, for example, who headed up the second duty shift and was third in command after Joachim, was of the opinion that Khan should allow Molly to fall into heat, bed her, get her with child, and then find someone more 'appropriate' with whom to bond.

Irena, of course, also made it quite clear that she considered herself the best candidate for that position, even though she was an Alpha rather than an Omega. She'd also gone out of her way to explain to Molly that she and Khan had been lovers in the past, and that she expected to be his lover again once he got over his infatuation with her.

Khan, as was typical, had said absolutely nothing on the subject. And she refused to ask him about it. Because it was none of her business, and there was absolutely no reason for her to be jealous of the other woman, to wonder if Khan would find Molly lacking as a sexual partner because she was a normal Human rather than an Augment who wore the sexiest, tightest-fitting clothing she could manage and strutted around like she owned the ship and everything on it. And only showed deference to Khan and Joachim – and Joachim only very, very grudgingly.

Molly pulled herself out of her thoughts and said good-bye as Joachim and Maria left to run some research on the latest biological specimens Khan's Away Team had beamed up from the planet's surface. That meant Molly was now alone in the spacious Sickbay, which was just fine with her; she had some research of her own to perform, but could easily do it at her desk in the office she shared with Joachim.

As she tidied up the workspace, placing the now-empty hypospray in the autoclave for sterilization and reuse, the sound of the doors opening caught her attention. She turned, expecting it to be either Joachim or Maria returning for something they'd forgotten or – as rarely happened – someone in need of medical attention, and found herself facing the very man who occupied so much of her thoughts these days.

Molly took a nervous step backwards as Khan approached. He was still wearing the hooded jacket he'd donned before beaming down to the planet and although she hated to admit it, looked good enough to eat. The expression on his face was even more intense than usual, and she wondered uneasily what he and his people had discovered during their scouting mission. "F-find anything useful?" she asked, once again castigating herself for the nervous stutter he and only he seemed able to elicit from her.

His lips curled in a slow, seductive smile, and she felt her knees weaken. God, she hated when he looked at her like that, all intensity and thinly veiled passion. His scent, that mouth-watering aroma he emitted that she no amount of hormonal suppressants could disguise, intensified whenever he looked at her like that. She still had no idea why he wanted her as much as he did; oh, she was pretty enough, she knew that, had never wanted for boyfriends in the past, but compared to the women that made up almost half of his crew, she wasn't exactly a supermodel. Even the matter of their compatible biologies and her status as an available, unbonded Omega didn't fully explain his desire to have her in his bed.

One of these days, she suspected, she'd find herself there whether she protested or not. And loving every second of it, her libido whispered while she stood and stared as the Alpha male who had claimed her in every way except physically approached her. "We're planning an overnight stay, Molly," he said as he stopped a precise two feet in front of her, hands folded behind his back, posture ramrod straight, eyes pinning her in place as usual. "I'll need a more extensive medical kit than the one currently on the planet's surface."

She nodded, rubbing absently at her arm before turning to do as he'd asked. She stopped with a small gasp as he caught her hand in his; the sizzle of electricity that went through her every time he touched her still caught her off-guard. She wondered absently if she'd ever get used to it as she gazed up at him questioningly.

He motioned to her other arm, the one she'd just been rubbing. "The suppressant, it pains you to take it?"

She shook her head. "No, it's just…subconscious, I guess. There's a little sting from the hypospray but it's not like getting a vaccination back in the old days…Sorry!" she squeaked out, blushing as she realized she was talking to someone who technically came from 'the old days'.

Khan merely grinned and released her, falling into step beside her as she headed for the supply closet where the medikits were stored.

Of course the one she particularly wanted, the one that would Khan would find most helpful on an overnight stay on a potentially hostile planet, was up on the top shelf. Just out of her reach. She strained for it nevertheless, not wanting to ask for help, but not surprised when she saw his longer arm reaching up and easily bringing it down for her.

She felt the warmth of his body against her back and tried her hardest to bring her breathing and suddenly-racing heartbeat under control, to no avail. In the confined space of the supply closet, his scent was everywhere, surrounding her, making her dizzy with want and need, knowing full well that if she hadn't been on the suppressants she would have probably exploded into heat just from his mere proximity.

She turned quickly, thinking only that she needed to escape his overwhelming presence, only of course that just made things worse. Now she could see as well as smell him, with only the thinnest slice of air separating their bodies, and knew that he must surely be able to smell every nuance of her arousal – but that he also must surely be able to read the conflict in her eyes, in the way she nibbled on her bottom lip and the tight fists into which she'd curled her hands.

"You're not frightened of me," he said, his voice a low rumble as he peered down at her through those amazing blue-green orbs. Like tourmaline, more blue than green at the moment; a sign of his own arousal? Or just his curiosity?

She shook her head in response to his not-question. "No. Not anymore," she said, somewhat breathlessly. "But I am confused," she added, deciding now was the perfect time to confront her ambiguous feelings for this man. "I don't understand why you…what you see in me. I'm nothing special, just an ordinary Human…"

"No, you're not," he contradicted her. "You're an Omega, which means you have Augmented blood in you, the same DNA modifications everyone on board this ship has undergone, only in diluted form. Haven't you ever wondered why you were so much smarter than your so-called peers? Why things that seemed so obvious and simple to you came with much more difficulty to them?" He peered at her intently. "You didn't graduate first in your class, but not because you weren't the smartest, no, you chose to allow others to exceed you academically in a foolish attempt to 'fit in' better."

It wasn't a question, and it wasn't a guess. He was deducing her, reading her…and once again proving he knew her better than she knew herself. "Whether you knew it or not, Molly Hooper, you were always one of us," he said softly, reaching out and sliding his hand along her waist, urging her closer, pressing his body flush against hers.

When their lips met, Molly's eyes fluttered shut, and she sighed, a quiet little exhalation acknowledging the inevitability of this moment. Her hands opened and ran themselves up his arms, coming to rest on his shoulders as his arms encircled her in a firm, possessive embrace.

The sound of a discreet cough from the doorway caused Molly to pull away, blushing, while Khan turned with a growl to face the interloper. "Well, Gavin? What is it?" he snapped out.

It was Gregor of course; Molly remembered what he'd told her, how Khan would deliberately get his name wrong to chuff him, but this time the leader of the Augments didn't sound at all amused. She slipped out of arms with a murmured excuse, telling herself she wasn't running away, that she and Khan hadn't almost had sex in a supply closet like some kind of cheesy rom-com cliché.

The two men left Sickbay shortly after that, Gregor offering her an apologetic grimace followed immediately by a cheeky wink that fortunately Khan didn't catch as he stormed out ahead of the other man. He, of course, didn't even look back.


End file.
